Round 10: to 1938 AD
I'm baaaaaaaaaack...
And in the immortal words of Red Leader: "...Almost there..."
(Yeah, I'm a geek... so what?)
The round mostly consisted of me steamrolling over poor Monty's cities, so I won't dwell on that. I made progress in several other regards towards our ultimate goal.
For one thing, purloined and polluted production powerhouse London (yeah, too bad it's not Paris--kind of ruins the roll I was on there) completed one of any Warmonger's dream wonders:
But I didn't abandon Vassalage just yet. War weariness was not at a level to require Nationhood's barracks-induced happiness boost, and I wanted to finish researching a few techs first. Since I also wanted to change to Universal Suffrage, I also wanted to ensure that I had some funds for rush-buying a few things.
Meanwhile, my armed flotilla captured and razed their last Aztec coastal city:
So I sailed the troops back around the southern cape to Tyre so they could begin ground assaults:
Meanwhile, I finished researching one of Civ IV's most delightfully evil techs:
BWAHAHAHAHA!! "Our threats are backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!"
Well, not yet... I had to build the Manhattan Project and then build the darn ICBMs. But I was making progress!
With that essential tech in hand, I made a civics change:
I pretty much had to adopt Emancipation. Hatty had adopted it and the unhappiness, on top of mounting War Weariness, was just killin' production back home! Oh well, I guess it's just time to let all those callouses on my whipping hand heal.
Along the way, I continued this game's Wonder spree. I was determined to keep WW abated:
Having purchased a few key buildings, especially overseas airports in Tyre and Sardis (complete with the obligatory Duty Free shops and $7 cups of coffee), I decided to recover some of my research muscle with one more (and hopefully last) civics change:
Yeesh, 2 turns just for that? I guess that's what I get for being Philosophical rather than Spiritual. That'll learn me...
Once the period of Anarchy was over, London was able to complete its next conquest-oriented wonder:
For some reason I feel an overwhelming urge to build a large underground lair, speak in an indeterminate eastern European accent, and kill on sight anyone whose first two initials are "00".
As well as blowing things up real good, I felt obliged to construct huge phallic symbols as well:
I may be over-compensating for something, but that probably falls under the heading "too much information" for you fine folks.
Overseas, my ground troops finished grinding Monty:
So, a look at the territory of my last remaining opponent in 1938 AD:
Good news: Hatty has only built one city in the territory I've cleared of settlement--Abydos, just northwest of Sardis.
Bad news: I was planning on capturing Tlacopan and using it as a launching point for my Bombers, but Hatty beat me to it! Sheesh--I call her in to the war, and the only Aztec city she captures is the only one I wanted to keep! If I didn't know the AI better, I'd regard that as a smart move.
So I have one ICBM built, Hatty just loves me to pieces (poor girl), and I've got a huge stack of veteran units (including my first couple of tanks) ready to thrust into Egyptian territory (sorry, overcompensating again). I still think it makes sense to capture Tlacopan and use it as an air base.
Or should I just build more ICBMs before attacking and not worry about air support?
Should I stick with ground troops or should I load my units back in to my Transports and stick with the Syrian doctrine? I don't have many Marines built yet.
Should I ramp up to taking out Hatty ASAP or should I just get on with it?
Also, what's the rule for targetting ICBMs? I was experimenting and it seemed that you can't target a tile within 2 of any of your own units, including a spy.
One more round, methinks, and then the fat lady sings.